What was the last product that you struggled to use?
MAC x Nicopanda’s eyeshadows! Those were brutal.
— Christine
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It Cosmetics CC Cream. Just looked dreadful on my skin and broke down anything else I wore. I tried mixing it in w other foundations. Nothing made that foundation work. Hated it and it’s the first thing I returned in a long time!
Isn’t it interesting how different we all are. IT CC Cream is one of my “go to/old reliable” products for when I want to wear foundation. Sorry it was so dreadful for you.
I had high hopes for it but it just was terrible for me and it’s the first thing that disappointed me in a long time. I have a Bobbi Brown BB Cream that works so much better and has good SPF. I wanted something more simple to wear outside now that it’s warming up. Want to put down the heavier foundations. Oh well
This product gave me cystic acne, and I couldn’t stand the scent! I switched to Bare Minerals Complexion Rescue and have been using that instead.
Me too! I found it looks cakey on my face, so luckily I have an Hourglass illuminating primer to help it not look so gross. But, it fades out too fast, and it breaks apart. Tell me how someone people like it?? I’m going to keep using it occasionally until it’s gone, but I will definitely not purchase it again. Plus, their color range is dreadful.
I might have to try Bobbi Brown’s CC cream as the one I love from Too Faced is now discontinued.
Usually I use products up even if I don’t like them but I just couldn’t with this. It’s too expensive to be so unhappy! And you’re right, the shade range was terrible. I had to get the lightest shade bc light, which I’d normally would have picked, was too dark. So strange!
L’Oreal Lash Paradise. I know people love this mascara, but it’s just a big clump-maker for my skimpy little lashes. I wound up throwing it away after trying to use it several times.
Lol that’s my second product that disappointed. It flakes too. I don’t hate it as much as the IT Cosmetics CC Cream but I definitely don’t get the hype but then I’m not a fan of a lot popular mascaras ie It Cosmetics Superhero and Benefit Rollerlash. I know those are HG for some but I was just meh
Same here on IT and Rollerlash! They wasn’t any better than drugstore brands for me. My HG has been Cover Girl Clump Crusher for quite some time, but I recently discovered Tarte Lights Camera Lashes when I received a trial size and was pleasantly surprised by how well it worked on me.
I hated the tarte mascara, LOL! I’m not even picky when it comes to mascara, and don’t need it to do much apart from adding a bit of color to my lashes, but that one just flaked & crumbled on me… I was actually a *huge* fan of the brand over all at the time (when the brand sold to another company, a lot of changes were made with ingredients that turned me off), so I really expected to at least like it. Granted, I only tried “minis”, but even figuring a couple could be “off”, after at least 4 over a span of a couple of years, I conceded the formula just didn’t work for me…
Isn’t it amazing how personal makeup is? What’s HG to one person is awful to another!!
It’s true. We all have different preferences and enjoy different things for a variety of reasons. I personally love Clinique High Impact (I bought a full size bc I loved the mini so much), MAC Extended Play Gigablack Lash Mascara, Chanel Le Volum and Trish McEvoy High Volume Mascara. I’m sure there are tons of people who didn’t like the above bc it didn’t do what they wanted to do.
They *weren’t*…Lol (I forgot to proofread.)
Once again, it would be the Marc Jacobs Edgitorial palette. I ended up returning it because it was a struggle and, basically, an “obligation” to use it and to me, makeup is about enjoyment rather than obligation (y’know, that feeling of “I spent a fair bit for this; I have to get some use from it”).
An Urban Decay Vice cream lipstick. It was heavy, thick, not smoothing. It emphasized my lip lines.
Sample of the Cover FX sunscreen. It seems to break down every foundation I put on top of it immediately. I just checked and Sephora no longer carries it, seems like other people were having the same problem.
MAC Risk Taker Palette. There is a gorgeous, buttery minky shade that swatches beautifully but I just can’t get it to look that way on my lid. The first laydown with a finger is decent but then if you want to add more, you can’t use the same finger or the same area – it’s not buildable. Trying to sheer it out with a brush just ends up getting rid of most of it so you barely have a tint left behind and none of that beautiful foil/shimmer. Very disappointing. The other shades are fine, even the golden one in the same formula as the minky one – just can’t get that shade to behave. The palette itself is not my cup of tea (hot pink and red eyeshadow), but it has some neutrals that I like to work with and I can use those loud colors as a backlight for a dimensioned neutral look.
CP Cusp, a green SSS…prob, but not nec, the underlayers. It’s pretty amazing, when you think of it, that readers here can envision what colors, products, app problems other people write about. That we get real mental pictures. Some days I think too much of my mind is like a Christine database. Predicting my dupes correctly, General TMI about m/u. Still have not got the mental translation of how product X looks on Christine would look on me, esp lip products, that pull different frequently. As some comic famously wagged, ‘A mind is a terrible thing.’
Very recently, it feels like a LOT of things have been giving me inexplicable issues! I was finally able to get the very pricey Hourglass Gold Flash Vanishing Highlighter to work, only to realize that it really doesn’t look so different from some other highlighters I already own. So it may get returned, I’m just not sure? Then there was that gorgeous green eye look I got out of Viseart Absinthe the other day…. blending out that dark cool-toned brown was a chore. It just didn’t want to blend out evenly at all! Not typical of any Viseart eyeshadow I own, so that has me not wanting to use that shade unless I lay down a layer of a lighter, warmer shade to bridge it with that starkly pale browbone shade. Then again, my favorite eyeshadow primer (Milani) went missing, so that could have something to do with it.
Nancy!
I could cry about 50% of the Absinthe palette! Personally, I don’t have trouble with the brown. It’s the shimmer and the glitter. Ugh.
My take? Want to walk around all day with a kindergartner’s glitter craft project on your face? Then the gold in this palette is for you! The mattes are 100% Viseart swoon-worthy quality. The rest, IMO, is absolutely awful.
I complained mightily to MUSE, and I will be returning it for a refund. (Their return policy is stupid in 2018, IMO.) I will be sad to lose the greens, but I’m so incensed at the rest I’m willing to let them go. I may get the new Nars Erdem Night Garden as a replacement. Pondering…
I will say that MUSEBEAUTY.pro did me right when I was so unhappy. They won me back as a customer. Viseart Paris — not so sure. Very burned by this palette from an experienced user.
Nancy — again! 🙂
EXACT SAME experience with the Hourglass highlighter. I almost fell over in excitement when I tried a sample pack. Brought it home — no, no, no. I returned it. Did not need it, and due to performance did not want to keep it.
I think the last was Benefit Bad Girl Bang mascara. Thankfully I only had a tester size that was sent as a sample with an Ulta order. I was excited to try it as I had heard so much about but this stuff was terrible. I could not apply it without clumping to the point where it looked like I had three big lashes. It flaked. I tried combing lashes after application and all that did was practically yank my lashes out. When I was in Missoula my daughter and I went to Ulta to get her eye brows done and she and I were talking about the mascara when the associate came to do my daughters brows and all she heard was the name, BGB mascara and started gushing about it and telling me how amazing it was. I had to stop her and tell her it was the worst mascara I had ever used. She was a little embarrassed about how she went on about it.
Benefit Roller Lash. Smudges everywhere and didn’t do anything good anyways.:)
I also had trouble with the Josie Maran Argan enlightenment illuminizer. I’ve finally started mixing it with my dry-looking foundations. It makes me a little oily, but my skin is dry enough to handle that. My favorite mix right now is Neutrogena Healthy Skin in Natural Beige (too dark) plus Cover FX custom cover drops to lighten and deepen coverage, and illuminizer to “dew it up.”
Benefit’s High Beam liquid highlighter. It either ruins the foundation/concealer underneath or doesn’t show up at all if I’m too careful while attempting to apply it, and I just… I can’t. I give up.
I had the same experience with the Dew The Hoola. Mine was a sample so was happy to throw it away.
tom ford emerald isles cream and powder eye shadows. I really want to like it, but am not having much luck.
I haven’t really had a beauty product that has let me down recently, but I have experienced problems with the pumps – in my Elf foundation, recently opened Rimmel Match Perfection and an expensive bottle of La Roche Posay’s Soothing Moisturiser – all of them, the pumps are not working and it’s driving me crazy.
Potted gel liners, in general, especially with an angled brush. I learned to apply winged liner with a liquid & “traditional” brush, so it’s just too awkward. I plan to use what I have, but I have to use a mixing medium to avoid the “drag”, and a regular, thin liner brush. Since I use Inglot Duraline with a gel, the upside is it does hold up all day, in any condition!
I tend to apply a pencil eyeliner first and then layer the gel on top. It’s easier for me to do short strokes and press in the lashline but the pencil acts as a guide. Im not into winged liner though. It’s difficult to apply when my eyes are slightly hooded
Count me in with the IT foundation fails. I can’t get any of them to work! I watch the demos on the Q and it covers all the redness and skin issues on the models. On me it won’t even cover a very light age spot. Can’t help but wonder what kind of smoke and mirrors they are using. And add to that it won’t blend evenly and looks splotchy—big-time fail for me.
A Shu Uemura X Mario lipstick. It was a slightly neon pinky coral and matte texture. I find Shu’s matte lipstick very silicony and not smoothing at all, even after I exfoliate my lips and everything. It just slips and slides all over the place and it’s not even a pretty color. I tossed it after probably 3 uses.
I bought the Butter London Eye Glazen in Mermaid without testing it first, either at the store or before using it on the back of my hand. I really like all the other shades I’ve gotten and have had no issues. Unfortunately it comes off as a glitter bomb on my eyes. I tried to remove the bit I had put on my lid and in the process it got all over my face so everything had to come off, not a good makeup day for me.
Oops…needs 2 commas in the first sentence.
“or, before using it, on the back of my hand.”
Since I don’t actually wear it on the back of my hand, 😉
NYX Dewy Setting Spray. I think it’s an unnecessary step for me especially now that I have repurchased Elemis Balancing Lime Blossom Cleanser (my HG) as my oiliness is becoming reduced again.
Skyn Iceland Icelandic Relief Eye Cream. All the reviews I’d read insisted it was great for mature women like myself, that it got rid of dark circles (which I have aplenty) and generally made the eye area brighter. Apart from creating a smooth base for eye makeup, it did nothing else – my dark circles were still there, even after I’d used it religiously for a month, morning and night. Occasionally my eyes stung upon application, and I also found the marshmallow-like consistency difficult to spread. What a waste of £38.
Ardell Magnetic Lashes! Just tried the double demi wispies last night, after finding the double wispies a bit much, and I’m starting to think these will never work for me, because having the weight and bulk of two sets of lashes on my actual lashes, as opposed to anchored to the lid, is too much!
Physician’s Formula Murumuru Butter Blush in Natural Glow. It was too light for my skintone to use as either a blush or a highlighter. I tried it as a blush topper, which was pretty, but it showed my pores and chicken pox scars. I ended up returning it.
For me, it was ABH Subculture. It was the first cosmetic item I have ever returned. I love Modern Renaissance so much. I think I got a bad one. Quite a few of the lovely colors just went muddy, it was difficult to blend out, and just not as good as Modern Renaissance, which I love so much and may even get a backup, it is that good.
Had to quickly return the WetnWild Photo Focus foundation it showed every teeny thing on my face everything! Besides I prefer dewy instead of matte. Didn’t like at all and I love many things from Wetnwid but this was a failure.